


MuzzleTime

by Adia (Eva)



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 10:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6419425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eva/pseuds/Adia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three phone calls while Nick's in the academy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	MuzzleTime

...

Judy almost pounced on the phone when it finally rang--and at almost 9 pm! “Nick! How was...Oh.”

“Oh?” Nick repeated, holding a bag of ice to the eye that wasn’t glaring at her. 

She tried a smile. “You look...”

“I look terrible.”

His fur was matted with, well, that was probably mud, if she remembered the jungle training correctly. Judy couldn’t argue, but she could dissemble. “You’ve looked better.”

“I look terrible and I feel terrible. Carrots, I’m gonna quit.”

Not even a week in? Judy hopped on her bed, ignoring the outraged shouting from behind the wall as it thumped. “Do not quit.”

“I’m gonna quit. I can’t do this.” Nick set the phone down on something and she could see, with nostalgic commiseration, the dank, crowded shadows of the recruits’ barracks. And Nick had been so sure he wouldn’t be staying there at all, considering how close home was to the academy--ha! Exhaustion conquered all.

She jabbed a finger at the screen. “Counterpoint: you can do this.”

“Counterpoint: I was not made to do this. No one was.”

“Uh, then how do we have so many police officers in Zootopia?”

Nick jabbed a finger back at her. “Exactly. We have so many. They won’t miss one fox.”

Judy rolled her eyes even as she tried to sound more sympathetic. “I will miss one fox. Nick, come on. You had a bad day--”

“It’s like chasing down crazed predators all the time. Look at this! This is never coming out of my fur.” He picked the phone up and held it high, tilted down, so that she could see just how much mud he was caked with. Judy bit the inside of her cheek hard so that she didn’t laugh--after all, she remembered just how miserable that was (which was slightly less than he was making it out to be).

She adopted a brisk tone. “A long soak in a hot tub would do a lot towards making you feel and, consequently, look a lot better.” 

“Carrots.” He glared at her again, and dropped the bag of ice. That was turning out to be one heck of a black eye, and she winced.

But inspiration struck. “Nick. Forty-eight hours.”

“What?” he asked, laughing a little. She sat up straighter, starting to beam.

“Forty-eight hours,” she repeated. “Give it forty-eight hours. If it doesn’t get any better, then quit.”

Nick shook his head, but he was smiling. “Forty-eight hours.”

“And I’ll bring you a jumbo pop.” Judy smiled as winsomely as she was able, and Nick, sly fox that he was, nevertheless fell for it.

“Yeah. Yeah, all right.”

...

“I’m done.”

Judy tried not to groan. “Nick, come on. This is your dream!”

“Correction: this was your dream.” Nick was combing sand out of his fur with an exhausted fascination. Judy couldn’t see how much had fallen out onto the floor already, but he certainly had a lot to go. “My new dream is to never again have to wake up before the sun rises to sprint through a desert, simulated or not.”

“Well, you passed, so you don’t have to. Which means,” she added, in her brightest, cheeriest voice, “you don’t have to quit!”

“She wouldn’t let me wear my sunglasses, Carrots. I’m still seeing spots.”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Well, if they’re on my face, then... no.”

“What’s that?” Nick picked up the phone and peered at her. “Those are... Hopps. What happened to your face?”

Judy sighed loudly and flopped back on her bed, staring resolutely at the ceiling. “I chased a suspect through a squirrel paint ball tournament.”

There was a long moment of silence, and then her neighbors pounded on the wall and demanded that whoever was cackling in there knock it off. Judy just stared at the ceiling, waiting it out.

“Oh, that’s just perfect,” Nick said finally, and Judy chanced meeting his gaze on the screen. He was smiling with a fondness she didn’t often get to see. “Even if I outlast this place, I’ll just be getting the same out there on the streets.”

“But you’ll be getting the same out there with me,” Judy said, smiling back. “And I can use you as a shield for the worst of it, maybe.”

"Like that’s going to entice me.”

“You can use me as a shield, too.”

“You’re half my height,” Nick protested, laughing again.

“I’ll keep my ears up!”

“I’ll still end up with paint on my face!”

...

"You're going to be there, right?"

"Nick, I'm the one giving the speech. Remember?" Judy was, in fact, scowling down at said speech, trying to tweak it to perfection. 

"But you'll be there before that. To help me make sure this uniform they're giving me looks right. We don't want the first fox in the ZPD to have his buttons done up wrong, or--or something."

"I'm the one making the speech," Judy repeated, darting a gaze to her phone. Nick's eyes were wide and pleading. "I'm the one who should be nervous, not you! Remember the last time I spoke in public?"

She winced even as she said it, but Nick chuckled and her shoulders relaxed. "All right, Carrots. You're right. I'm going to look fine no matter what, classically handsome dude that I am, but you are definitely in trouble."

"I'm not in trouble," Judy said, but he overrode her.

"Yeah, you're a terrible public speaker. But I'm sure that my graduation ceremony--a huge and important milestone in my life--will be in no way marred by your habit of putting your feet firmly in your mouth."

"Why are you making this harder for me?" Judy demanded, half serious and half laughing.

Nick shrugged. "Somehow, putting the pressure on you feels like taking it off me."

"We're partners. We share the pressure."

"Exactly."

She sighed and rolled her shoulders, then shook herself in an attempt to get back to full mental alertness. "Fine. Fine! I will stop by earlier to make sure you're not somehow wearing your uniform backwards."

"And in return, I will help you with your speech--"

"Uh-uh." She looked at the phone and at Nick's raised eyebrow.

"No?"

"I want..." she trailed off, then shrugged. "I want it to be kind of, almost, for you. Like a present."

His voice was completely deadpan. "You want the speech you give at the ceremony to be my present. What, Carrots, you couldn't think of literally anything else? Not even a gift card?"

"I said like a present!" Judy flared. Then she added, more quietly, "Or like an apology."

"You already gave me one of those," Nick pointed out gently.

"Yeah, but that one had a lot of tears. And a little bit of snot, probably."

"Oh yeah. Not a little. I mean, I was surprised at how much you rabbits can leak out of those tiny little noses--"

"Nick!" Judy half-shouted, and that started up the shouting beyond the wall.

"Whoops, woke up the antelopes," Nick said, and winked at her. "See you tomorrow?"

"Will I see you tomorrow?" Judy asked brightly. "Yes, yes I will."

...


End file.
